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After two years of research & development, and some great work by the Group Quality team, we are about to release Group Quality™ Beta version on to the world. A new online software product which enables you to create, manage, moderate and report real-time online groups. Group Quality™ will create new opportunities for businesses, organisations and individuals by enabling them to conduct low cost, planned and moderated real-time online groups. Group Quality™ is focused on delivering the tools to capture and analyse new knowledge. With instant access to some revealing reports, quickly identify opportunities, trends and hidden gems of valuable insight without waiting days or weeks for long winded and verbose reports.

As we prepare for our visit to London, to exhibit as ad:tech on the 21st and 22nd of September, the place is all a buzz with anticipation and excitement. With only a few days to polish our wheels and prepare our team we are about to join a whole new list of innovative online software companies. We have picked some great online products to help us deliver our customer support and have chosen ZenDesk for its ease of use and its comprehensive customer offering.

We firmly believe that real-time group moderation technology should be accessible by individuals and organisations of all sizes. Developing real-time group technology is our full-time job and not something we do occasionally. Whether you use Group Quality™ for online focus groups, online usability groups, research, training or counselling and support groups, you can do so with the knowledge that we are focused on providing you with the worlds leading self-service real-time online group moderation tools.

To register you interest, or just to be notified when we are up and running, just drop you name and email address in our notification form.

Additional View conducted a website quality audit and analysis of all Tasmania Council websites over a three day period in February 2009. The objective of the study was to develop a Website Quality Index™ and benchmark comparison of Tasmania Council websites based on a set of defined standards in three vital areas - Accessibility, Usability and Search Engine Optimisation.

Methodology

To ensure the analysis was conducted based on a high level of objectivity a number of professional standards were chosen to effectively measure and compare each of the websites in the areas of Accessibility, Usability and Search Engine Optimisation.

Accessibility

Website accessibility was measured using the W3C Website Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) to the WCAG 1.0A and WCAG 1.0AA level of accessibility compliance. This standard was chosen based on the recommendation provided by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission and to comply with recommendations for website communications detailed in the Australian Disability Discrimination Act.

Usability

The usability guidelines from which an heuristic review was conducted were based on those set of detailed criteria generated by Usability.gov and W3C standards. The usability.gov guidelines provide one of the worlds most robust and comprehensive set of usability and user behaviour standards. These usability standards were developed from usability research and have undergone thorough analysis by usability experts and industry panels. Usability guidelines are constantly reviewed and updated based on the latest published research and user experience knowledge. The study considered the W3C best practice for constructing usable websites and the readability of websites based on content and structure.

Search Engine Optimisation

Search engine optimisation guidelines used during this study are based on a number of published standards produced by each of the major search engines and authoritative organisations. These include:

• Google Search Guidelines
• Yahoo and MSN Search Guidelines
• Robots.txt Guidelines
• Search Engine Optimisation Best Practices Guidelines

Depth of analysis

To provide a standard level of page and file analysis across all websites Additional View examined all page content three links deep from the home page. The website analysis included an examination of the page content and structure, information architecture and navigation, images, and the use of files such as PDF documents to display information.

Website Quality Index™ Benchmark Results

Website Accessibility Results

The following chart shows the examination of the Accessibility WCAG (1.0) issues for each website. The displayed results are based on the number of Accessibility issues identified as a percentage (%) of total website pages. The Councils are listed in alphabetical order.

In total there were over 4000 pages discovered with accessibility issues with an average of 5 issues on each of those pages, or on average 22% of a typical council website which did not meet the basic WCAG (1.0)A and WCAG (1.0)AA Accessibility standard.

Website Usability Results

The following chart displays the results for the Tasmania council websites based on a set of usability guidelines and standardised defined by Usability.org. The chart shows each of the council websites in alphabetical order and displays the percentage (%) of pages with usability issues.

In total there were over 4400 pages with usability issues with an average of 4 issues on each of those pages, or an average 24% of a typical council website which did not meet usability standards.

Find out more about usability and user experience research.

Search Engine Optimisation Results

The following chart displays the results of a search engine optimisation analysis of the Tasmania Council websites. The chart is organised in alphabetical order and shows the percentage (% ) of website pages which do not meet Search Engine Optimisation Guidelines. Search engine optimisation is an important and often neglected part of Tasmania Council websites. It is a good indicator of the search engine visibility of public information and communications contained within those websites.

In total there were over 3700 websites pages with search engine optimisation issues with an average of 2.5 issues for each of those pages, or an average of 20% of a typical Tasmanian council website not meeting basic Search Engine Optimisation Standards.

Find out more about Search Engine Optimisation.

Website Quality Index™ Conclusion

Overall council websites did not perform well in the three areas examined. There were a few stand-out websites which achieved better than average results, but there is a lot of room for improvement. The poor performance of some websites was due to factors such as the over use of PDF documents to provide information, improper use of headings and poor readability of website copy. Many issues can be easily rectified, but would require a holistic and centred approach to the website communication strategy.

With the acceptance of an updated Accessibility Standard WCAG 2.0 Tasmania Council websites need to focus on website Accessibility as a priority. Accessibility, Usability and Search Engine Optimisation are closely related and by focusing on Accessibility a Council would go part way in improving Usability and Search Engine Optimisation.

To find out how Additional View can help your organisation with Accessibility, Usability and Search Engine Optimisation contact us.

Your organisation may have a website but are you confident it is effectively delivering an improved level of service? Over 70% of households^, 92% of small businesses and 99% of medium size business are currently connected to the Internet* which results in an increased demand for a better level of service. It is now more important than ever that emphasis is placed on delivering websites which achieve the customer goals as well as organisational objectives. Additional View are frequently asked to “fix” websites that just don’t achieve the intended objectives and in doing so have identified the following top 10 reasons why websites fail:

1. The website isn’t search engine optimised. Search engines work in a highly specific fashion and many poorly designed websites are ‘invisible’ to search engines and to customers. This can dramatically affect your search engine listing when users search for your organisation or products and services.
2. Flash animation is misused, making your website distracting and frustrating. This can distract the user preventing them from reading important information about the organisation, its products and services, on their terms. It can also frustrate users due to increased download times.
3. The website has been designed for style not strategy. Many inexperienced website developers jump straight into design without considering key organizational objectives or the intended target audience. The website may look fantastic but does it achieve its intended purpose? Is it easy to use? Does the design distract the user from reading the core information on the website?
4. Contact details are hard to find. The Internet is all about speed and efficiency - online customers have very little tolerance for organisations that make them search for a phone number.
5. The website is not advertised offline. Many organisations forget to include their website address on stationery, vehicles, on buildings and in advertising.
6. Website addresses are not obvious. Long, unusual website addresses with dashes or punctuation make it difficult for customers to guess or remember. Customers like simple, easy to remember web addresses.
7. Many websites forget to ask visitors to act. Important calls to action to join, register, contact or submit are not placed in an obvious location. Don’t make customers search the page for instructions. Place calls to action in an obvious place on the pages and don’t be afraid to repeat them more than once where relevant.
8. Website content is out of date. This makes an organisation look unorganised and sloppy, causing a negative perception of the organisation and may result in a customer failing to return to the website.
9. Website content is long winded. Customers read less on screen than on paper, scanning text and looking for keywords and headings. Regurgitating offline content such as brochures bombards the user with too much information and moves large amounts of copy out of the page scroll area. You run the risk of users ignoring the excess copy and missing the key information on the page.
10. The website does not comply with W3C accessibility standards. Customers with vision impairment or low literacy levels are seriously disadvantaged with websites that don’t comply with these standards.

^ Source: Internet World Stats 2007

* Source: Sensis eBusiness Report 2007

Google now gives the power to website users to remove bad websites from the search results and reward those they find useful by pushing them up the list for their own search results.

Known as Google searchWiki, Google users will have the power to customise their own search results by deleting, re-ranking and commenting on search results.

For businesses and organisation who are wondering what this will mean for their website, customers who use search are able to remove websites from their own search results if they feel the site isn’t relevant or simply doesn’t come up to scratch. These changes will be remembered by Google and the next time a Google user searches for the same thing their customised search results will be shown.

At the moment Google have announced this service is only available for Google signed in users. If you have signed up for a Google account you can always check by noting if your username is visible in the upper right hand side of your Google page.

Businesses and Organsiations need to take note, because the more users who have a Google account the more important it will be to make sure the initial search results for your website are relevant and correct, and the actual website experience is of great enough value that you will not be deleted or pushed down the list.

Since 2005 AdditionalView has been creating websites which are focused on the user experience. We have shown business and organisations the importance of designing and building websites which are usable, useful and are built on a sound website marketing strategy. This has now become so much more important and to survive website owners really need to step back and get to know their website users.

To help organisations deal with issues such as the Google SearchWiki described above, in 2009 Additional View will be releasing a world first online consumer research product. This new service will help organisations understand their online customers and build better websites to avoid the pitfalls that come with website which fail to meet customer expectations.

So stay tuned.

To see how GoogleWiki will change the landscape of customer search why not watch the Google video on You Tube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8Pl1H0dIXE